Fort Collins students hear local veterans' harrowing war tales

May 2, 2013

Virginia Brown, 86, of Fort Collins, shares tales of her days as a Navy nurse and service in the Korean War with a group of Fossil Ridge High School students Thursday morning. / Madeline Novey/The Coloradoan

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On Thursday, Fossil Ridge High School swapped learning war stories from textbooks to hearing those recounted from real life.

Among others, one of the first female Marines, a survivor of a Japanese internment camp and a Navy nurse shared their stories Thursday morning with about 130 Fossil Ridge students who have studied war from the pages of books and websites.

Fort Collins resident Virginia Brown, 86, did two tours of Korea aboard a hospital ship as a nurse with the Navy. She then signed on with the U.S. Public Health Service, eventually earning the rank of captain.

She described to students the beauty of port cities in Korea, hardships of war and what drew her to her lifelong profession: It was the beautiful, crisp uniforms she saw ladies wearing at the Medical College of Virginia.

Nearby, Fred Mills, recounted the horror and chaos that was jumping off the George Washington — a German ship captured in World War I — into the waters during the World War II invasion of southern France. His memory revisited those beaches and saw the sky, “dark as pitch.”

“It’s amazing and touching,” social studies teacher Katie Gunter said of the opportunity for Fossil Ridge students to hear from those who experienced history firsthand. She looked on at a crowd of students in the auditorium, clustered in chairs and cross-legged on the floor in front of veterans and survivors alike.